The LSU Bowling Club will make club history this weekend when both the men’s and women’s teams compete in their first United States Bowling Congress’s Intercollegiate Team Sectionals tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., since 1975. Teams must rank in the top-64 teams to be invited to compete in the sectionals tournament, dubbed by club members as “the college bowling version of March Madness.”   “That number may appear somewhat large, but when you think about all the colleges across the country that have a bowling club, it’s actually a pretty elite club,” said Troy Glorioso, LSU Bowling Club president. The club competed in three tournaments this season within its conference — the Southwest Intercollegiate Bowling Conference — which includes teams from Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma University and University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The club also competed in three national tournaments this season in Atlanta and Las Vegas. The points earned from these competitions decided the team’s ranking and advancement to sectionals. Teams invited to sectionals will compete in one of four different cities: Allentown, Pa., St. Louis, Mo., Chattanooga and Las Vegas. The top-four teams from each city will advance to the USBC Intercollegiate Team Championship in Rockford, Ill., from April 15 to 18. Ohio State, Purdue and Central Florida are among the teams LSU will compete against in its sectional in Chattanooga. Kevin Albarez, club member, said the club feels confident in its ability to do well at the tournament. “We feel like we can make it to the national tournament,” Albarez said. To prepare for its first appearance at sectionals, the club made the most out of its Monday and Wednesday practices, which lasted at least two hours. “It’s not so much the time — it’s more the time wasted,” Glorioso said. “We always have fun at practice, but for this one tournament, being that we’re in a position we’re not comfortable or familiar with, we really just wanted to get the most out of it.” Glorioso said he is ecstatic the team made it to sectionals. “I know what kind of a team we have, and I know that in the past few years, doing something like this was looked at as a stretch, something that probably would never happen,” Glorioso said. “It’s not a daydream anymore.” Established in the early 1970s, the club is open to any student who wants to compete or play recreationally. Bowling coach Blair LeBlanc said the club has really grown this year. “This is the first year we have a separate men’s and women’s team. We have 15 people between the two teams, so the team has really grown in one year,” LeBlanc said.  Tony Radesky, senior club member, said the club is also much different from what it was like four years ago. “When I was a freshman, we only competed in one tournament the entire year, practiced maybe once a week, and we were dead last,” Radesky said.  Win or lose, advancing to sectionals for the first time in club history is an accomplishment for the club. “Obviously, if we lose, we’ll be disappointed, but we’re also going with the sense that this doesn’t have to be the end,” Glorioso said. “We’re going to go as far as we can take ourselves, and whatever that destination is, we’re going to be as excited as we were when we first got into it.” Students interested in the club are encouraged to contact the club at [email protected].”Being on the team is a great way to get to know people, and this year’s team has been the closet group of people I’ve been with,” said club member Jacob Cook. “It’s not so much a team as much it is a family.”——Contact Brianna Paciorka at [email protected]